Hide and Seek
by Flickerswift
Summary: Sequel to Missing. Why would you save a complete stranger from death? How would you keep running from the organization who had spies everywhere? Change history, of course. We were already changing it, why not mess up this world even more? ObitoOC SasoriOC
1. Chapter 1 Found

Chapter 1

Authors Note: Yay! I finally started Hide and Seek! Woo! Hope you all like it! By the way, this is the sequel to Missing…

Disclaimer: Seriously… Do you really think I own Naruto?

* * *

I froze as I heard footsteps in the hallway. I laid down on the bed, like I was still unconscious. Maybe I could get some information. Seriously, how in hell did he find us? I look nothing like I was when I was 17!

Ok… Strike that last statement… Sure I was a bit shorter but I still looked the same. But why in hell did Sasori save Obito along with me? Why did he save me? The questions whirled in my head, but I silenced them when the door opened. I tried, in vain, to check the chakra signature. Ugh… I'm not very good with this whole chakra sensing thing. But… It didn't seem like Sasori was there… I was bad at chakra sensing, but not bad enough that I couldn't tell there was two people in the room. And I was pretty sure one of those was not Sasori… But that didn't explain the poison tipped kunai.

Oh wait. Didn't I pick one of his kunai's up when I fell through the portal? Damn. But then who in hell saved us? I waited to see if the err… visitors would talk. I didn't have to wait long. I heard someone laugh.

"Oh My Gosh! You weren't kidding! She really is 13 again!" I heard the ever so familiar voice of Rose. Rose… Then that meant…

"I told you yeah!" Of course! The whole Akatsuki knew the portal opening jutsu! Oh shit. The whole Akatsuki. Which meant Sasori too. Without realizing it, my eyes snapped open. Sasori plus portal opening jutsu equaled screwed me. Hopefully it took a lot of chakra to open portals... By now Rose and Deidara had noticed me. So I greeted them with the ever so intelligent reply.

"Where in God's name am I?" I said. Rose stood over me, her highlighted hair framing her face. She giggled.

"You're thirteen!" she said. I stared at her.

"No shit Sherlock," I muttered. She giggled again.

"The portal must have made you younger yeah," Deidara said. I rolled my eyes. Then I remembered Obito.

"Who in hell did this bandaging job? It's horrendous!" I exclaimed. I tore the bandages off and inspected what I had healed right before I blacked out. Wow… I actually healed him that much? The lower body and upper body were fine. The eye wasn't in such great shape. I searched my knowledge for healing eyes. I did a quick analysis of my chakra. Almost all back. That's good. I gently unwrapped the bandage from Obito's head and examined the damage. Crushed, but not too much torn. That was better than what I had hoped. I let the green healing chakra flow to my finger tips and placed them around Obito's eye. I closed my eyes and relied only on my chakra. I felt the different parts of the eye slowly start to heal the way it was before it got crushed. I could feel my chakra drop a bit. I focused on the part of the eye that needed the most healing. Once that part of the eye was healed I stopped healing, realizing I had used almost all of my chakra. I rewrapped the bandage, this time the correct way, and started to bandage the rest of Obito's body. Rose was staring at me.

"That was awesome Lily!" she said, inspecting my healing.

"Who would have known you would be a medic nin, un," Deidara said. I shrugged.

"Who's that?" Rose asked. I stared at her.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah… who is it?"

"He is not an it! He is Obito!"

"Obito huh?"

"Yes, Uchiha Obito!"

"So you effectively changed the outcome of the future?"

"No. I just saved him! Kakashi-teme has his precious Sharingan," I pointed out. Rose looked thoughtful.

"Kakashi-teme yeah?" Deidara asked.

"Yeah, He's a real asshole," I said. I yawned and inspected the poison tipped kunai.

"Please dispose of this properly," I said, tossing it over to Rose, who yelped and caught it by the handle.

"DON'T DO THAT!" she hissed, stashing it in her pack. I rolled my eyes. Then I realized how hungry I was.

"Oh my God… Give me some food!" I muttered, grabbing Deidara's pack off the table and rummaging through it. Ugh. Nothing. I threw the bag down and leaped over to Rose's pack and started looking for anything edible. Nothing again. Obito had to have something! I dove to where my pack and Obito's pack was and looked for anything that resembled food. I came upon some kind of granola bar, and decided to eat it. Who cared if it was disgusting. I needed food. Now! I stuffed the whole bar in my mouth and chewed. I froze after about two seconds.

"EWWWWWWWW!!" I screeched, running to the bath room to spit the horrid thing out. I downed at least five cups of water before finally getting that horrid taste out of my mouth. I came back out to notice Deidara was gone.

"He went to go get food," Rose said. I nodded and flopped down on my bed. Without knowing it, I fell asleep until Deidara returned a half hour later.

* * *

I woke up to the smell of food. My mouth watered and I was up immediately.

"Food!" I screeched, and dug into the takeout that Deidara had brought back. I must have eaten at least five cartons before sighing and flopping down on my bed. Rose was staring at me.

"I forgot how much you could eat…" she muttered. I looked up and realized I left one box for both Rose and Deidara.

"Oops…" I muttered. Deidara shrugged and took the last box. Rose glared at him and snatched the box back.

"Ladies first," she said, digging in. Deidara rolled his eyes and snatched it back.

"You don't eat as much as I do," Deidara countered. Rose smirked and watched as Deidara ate. Her eyes got all big and she blinked a few time. Uh oh… Deidara was getting the 'pwetty pwetty pwease?' look. Deidara wouldn't stand a chance!

"B...but… Dei-kun!" Rose whined. I snickered. Dei-kun? That was priceless! Deidara looked up. He froze upon the look on Rose's face.

"I…thought you loved me!" Rose sobbed. Deidara looked shaken. I was trying to hold in my laughter.

"NO! I DO! HERE! HAVE IT YEAH!" Deidara said, handing the food over. Rose grinned evilly and devoured the rest of it. I started laughing.

"I… can't believe you fell for it!" I laughed, clutching my stomach. Deidara looked kind of pissed. He threw something at me and it exploded. I screeched and leaped up into the air. I stuck to the ceiling with chakra and hyperventilated.

"What the hell was that for?" I hissed. Suddenly I heard a groan and my eyes shot to Obito. Rose's and Deidara's eyes shot over to the partially healed 13 year old. I unstuck from the ceiling and rushed over to Obito.

"Urg… Lily-chan…" he mumbled.

"Hai! What is it Obito-kun?" I said, full of worry.

"You saved… me…" he muttered.

"No, Obito-kun, you saved me! I only repaid the debt," I said.

"Uh… Lily-chan… My head hurts…" he muttered. I summoned up a bit of my remaining chakra and touched it to his forehead.

"Is that better?" I asked.

"Yeah… Much better…" he mumbled, falling asleep. I sighed a sigh of relief. There wasn't any internal brain damage. Ugh… My chakra was waning… I better get to sleep. I wandered over to my bed and flopped down on it, falling asleep immediately.

* * *

I woke up to see a note on the nightstand. I grabbed it and read what it said.

_Lily,_

_Deidara and I have to leave. We're missing nin now, unlike you two. ANBU are after us, but we managed to leave you a bit of cash and some food. Hopefully we'll meet up again in the future. I'll make sure to keep a look out for you in the future! See you around sometime,_

_Rose_

_PS: The room is paid for till the end of the week_

I put the note in my pack and found a wad of cash in it. I found the food and ate a little, not feeling so hungry that morning. I decided to check how much I had to heal. It was almost the end of the week. I made my way over to Obito and ran a quick analysis. His bones and muscles were pretty much fixed, just needed a little time to get used to moving again. His head was pretty good except for the eye, which I was planning to continue healing. If I healed his eye, he would be able to use the Sharingan again. I would have to research on how the Sharingan switches back to the normal eye and see if Obito could do that. But for now, I would have to finish healing the eye.

I walked over to Obito and started to heal the eye more. I noticed that it was more healed then when I stopped last time. Maybe Rose and Deidara hired another medic while I slept. I let the healing chakra enter Obito's eye and made a few last adjustments. Then I noticed something particular. The chakra pathways were a bit blocked from last time I healed Obito's eye. It wasn't much, but I could still sense it. So I cleared them again and finished healing the rest of the eye. I had heard that the Sharingan makes the user blind after keeping the Sharingan on for a long time.

I stopped healing when I felt that the damage was gone. I nodded and started to count how much money we had. Just enough to last us a week, at most. I groaned. How in hell were we supposed to get money? My thoughts were cut off by Obito, who was awaking.

"Lily-chan!"

"Huh? What is it?" I asked.

"Can you bring me the food?" Obito said, somehow sitting up. I brought some of the food over and he ate it all, sighing in relief.

"Arigato!" he thanked. I nodded.

"Do you think you can use chakra?" I asked. Obito formed a hand sign and I felt his chakra flare for a moment.

"Yeah, I can!" Obito cheered. I laughed and dug around in my pack.

"Ah! Where did it go?" I dumped the pack out.

"Where did what go?" Obito asked.

"Damn! The rocks must have buried it…" I muttered.

"Buried what?" Obito asked.

"Your goggles," I said.

"Oh… It's ok… I can always get a new pair!" Obito smiled. I shrugged.

"I guess… By the way, do you have any idea how we didn't die in that cave in?" I asked.

"Nope, but I'm glad I didn't! But… Where will we go now?" Obito asked. I thought for a moment. Then I came to a conclusion.

"Anywhere we want I guess…"

"Anywhere huh…" I nodded.

Anywhere... That was my code for away from Sasori.

* * *

Authors Note: Ello! Im hoping to get the next chapter out by at least 10/25... Great... Five more days. I might extend that deadline a few more days though... Just a few! Not a whole week! I'm already running behind schedule... Oh well... See you soon!


	2. Chapter 2 Cutting The Ties

Chapter 2

Authors Notes: *waves* Ello! Uh… I don't exactly know what to write here… That's a first… Thanks for reading! Without you, I'd be much more depressed!

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I'd make the Akatsuki rule the world! MUAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA!

The next day I did one last check up on Obito.

"Ok. You can use chakra, but try not to use too much Sharingan, it may cause more damage. Don't use too much chakra, or else all my healing will go to waste! Don't strain yourself too much. Ok?" I said.

"Of course Lily-chan!" He said, saluting me. I rolled my eyes.

"Ok… We only have so much money. We need new clothes, food, water, new shoes, and traveling cloaks. It would also help if we changed our appearance a bit," I said, counting our money. Enough for new clothes, shoes, traveling cloaks, and a little bit of food and water. I gazed at Obito.

"Hmm… Lily-chan, can I ask you something?" he said.

"Sure,"

"Do you like your blond hair?" I thought for a minute.

"Not really. It's too hard to maintain, it gets dirty too easily, and everyone thinks I'm stupid cause of it," I answered truthfully, I hated my blond hair. Obito nodded.

"I like my black hair… Though it can get a bit annoying. Do we have enough money for hair dye?" he asked. I counted the money again.

"If we skip on the new shoes, then yes," I reported. Obito nodded.

"We can wait for new shoes, we need to conceal our identities for now," he said. I nodded. We could always do a few odd jobs to raise a bit of money.

"Ready to go?" I asked, gathering up my stuff. Obito nodded and we set off to the lobby of the inn.

"Where should we start?" I asked, surveying the market place.

"How about clothes?" Obito suggested. I nodded and we made out way to a store that sold shinobi clothes. Obito went off to find a new outfit while I meandered around the shop, looking for something that caught my eye. I glanced around and something caught my eye. I looked at the thing. It was a shirt. A sleeveless shirt that was a light grey color. It seemed thick enough to not tear when jumping through trees, but light enough so that I didn't lose speed. I decided to get that and the standard ninja pants. On impulse, I grabbed a fishnet shirt that was styled like a tank top. I then proceeded to wander around, looking for Obito. He was looking between two jackets. A hideous green color and an orange jacket. I sweat dropped. He already had some standard ninja pants and surprise surprise, a new pair of goggles. Oddly enough, the goggles looked exactly like his old ones. I noticed a few pairs of fingerless gloves nearby and grabbed a pair for me and a pair for Obito. I knew he liked them.

"Lily-chan! Which should I choose? The green color or the orange one?" he asked. I tried to hold back my disgust. Then I spotted the perfect jacket.

"Hmm… They're both good, but I think you would look much better in this jacket!" I said, taking the jacket I had seen. It was a black jacket, but it had little details of orange. It was similar to what Naruto's shippuden outfit was like, if I remember correctly. Only it didn't have the swirl details. Obito stared at the jacket.

"You're a genius Lily-chan!" he said, throwing the other two (hideous) jackets back on the rack. I grinned and handed him the fingerless gloves. He grinned.

"Arigato!" he said.

"Let's buy this stuff. Then we'll get food and a little bit of water," I said. Obito nodded and we went to the cashier to buy our clothes. We walked out of the store and headed over to the market place. I headed for a stand that sold some colorful fruit. Obito was observing a traveling chef make a certain dish. I decided to buy a few of the fruits for the road out. I saw Obito run up to me and point to one of the stalls.

"They make the best dango ever!" he said, dragging me over. I sighed.

"Two orders please!" Obito said, taking some of our money and giving it to the merchant. The merchant nodded and started to make a fresh batch of dango.

"We really should save our money," I said. Obito grinned. A minute later our food was ready. I took my order and took a bite. Wow… It was really good.

"Oh my gosh, it's like heavens in my mouth…" I said, taking another bite. Obito nodded. We finished our early lunch, and bought some non-perishable foods.

"Where would we get hair dye?" I asked Obito. Obito looked around.

"Dunno…" he said.

"Let's try that store," I said, pointing to a random store. Obito shrugged and we entered the store front.

"Well would you look at that… hair dye," Obito said, observing the different colors.

"Should we get permanent or the wash out kind?" I asked.

"Permanent… Easier to maintain," Obito said.

"Ok… You shouldn't get light colored hair, because you have dark eyes… err… eye…" I said, observing the headband he got at the clothing store. It was like a shinobi village headband, but instead of the metal plating with the village symbol on it, it had a simple orange swirl on it. It covered his missing eye. He looked a lot like Kakashi that way…

"Yeah, you can pretty much get whatever color you want… You have gray eyes, so that can go with any color you want," Obito said. I nodded and went over to the light brown colors. I wanted to change my hair, but not too drastically. Obito was silently debating over a mud brown color or a chocolate brown color. I was trying to decide between a light golden brown or a caramel brown. Obito seemed to have chosen, but I couldn't decide which I would like better.

"Obito… which one, the caramel brown one, or the light golden brown one?" I asked. Obito thought for a moment.

"The caramel brown would look good with you're hair a bit shorter, but the light golden brown would look better with your hair long like this," he said. I nodded.

"I think I'm going to cut my hair!" I declared, picking the caramel brown tube of hair dye. Obito grinned and we went to pay for the hair dye. We decided to head out tomorrow in the early morning. After we bought the hair dye, we decided to drop the stuff at the inn room and begin to dye our hair.

"Hey… Obito? Can you read how to do this, it's really small and I can't read it!" I said, holding out the bottle of hair dye. Obito activated the Sharingan and read the directions out loud.

"Thanks!" I said. Obito nodded and let the Sharingan fade back into his normal almost black eye color. I began to put the dye in my hair, rubbing it the way the directions said to. I could see that Obito was having trouble getting the back of his head.

"Need help?" I asked. Obito nodded and I giggled, grabbing the hair dye tube. He chose the chocolate brown hair dye. I squeezed a bit into my fingers and rubbed it around the places that Obito missed.

"Now we get to sit here for half an hour while the dye sets…" Obito groaned. I giggled again. He could never sit still!

I sat on the bed, watching the window. It was sunset. Really pretty too.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" I jumped at Obito's voice. He surprised me. I turned to see him grinning.

"HA! I scared you!" he said.

"N…No! I was just surprised!" I said. Obito grinned.

"Admit it!"

"No!"

"You know you were scared!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

It went on like this for a while. About ten minutes to be exact.

"Fine! You scared me!" I gave in. Obito smiled.

"HA! Now you have to do one thing for me," he said.

"What!?! I never agreed to that!" I said. Obito sighed and brought out a piece of paper. He wrote something down and handed it to me. I read it. I glared at him.

"You can't just make up an agreement on that!" I said.

"Of course I can!" Obito said. I sighed.

"Fine… I agree…" I said, taking the brush and signing my name on the paper. Obito cheered and signed his name.

"Ok! Now for what you have to do…" Obito said, pausing to think. I yawned and waited. After about a minute I started to time how long he was going to think. When Obito grinned again I checked where I was at. Six minutes and fifty seconds.

"I have the perfect thing!" He said.

"What?" I said, dreading the answer. Obito grinned and whispered what I had to do in my ear.

"OH HELL NO!" I screamed. "I DEMAND SOMETHING ELSE!" I said. Obito snickered and showed me the paper with my name on it.

"Come on Lily-chan! It's not that bad!" he said, giving me the innocent face. I cringed. I was such a sucker for those kinds of faces.

"Something else!" I said. Obito huffed and then grinned again. He whispered his second plan in my ear. My face heated up and turned red.

"So is it the first or the second one?" Obito asked.

"F…first one…" I said. Obito grinned.

"Ok then, out with it!" He said.

"Do I really have to?" I groaned. Obito nodded.

"Can I at least write it down?" I asked. Obito sighed but nodded, giving me a piece of paper. I sighed and started to write something down. After I was done I gave it to Obito. He quickly read over the note.

"Really? You're deepest fears are poison and wooden puppets? And guys with red hair?" he said. I nodded. Obito grinned.

"Don't worry Lily-chan! I'll protect you from all of those!" he said, saluting me. I giggled.

"Ok, I'll hold your word to it!" I said. Obito grinned again. I looked at the time and realized that the thirty minutes were up.

"So now we wash our hair right?" Obito said. I nodded. I was about to say something when Obito beat me to it.

"I call bathroom first!" He said, dashing to the bathroom.

"Hey!" I said, but made no move to chase him. I sighed and sat on the bed again, waiting for Obito to finish washing his hair.

"Wake up Obito! Gah! WAKE UP!" I screamed in Obito's ear. He still didn't flinch. We were supposed to be on the road an hour ago. I sighed, and then got a great idea. I took a deep breathe and gently blew on the inside of Obito's ear. He yelped and jumped straight to the ceiling, sticking to it with chakra.

"Lily-chan! That was mean!" he said, sheathing the kunai he had pulled out. I grinned.

"Well, I had to get you up somehow! We're supposed to out on the road already! Your going on two hours late," I said. Obito sighed.

"Hey, Lily-chan, you still need to cut your hair," Obito said.

"Hey, you're right! While you get ready, I'll think of how short I want it," I said. Obito grinned and jumped off to the bathroom. I twirled a kunai with my fingers, thinking about how short I wanted to cut my hair. It was down to my waist now, so I wanted it to be short, but nothing above the beginning of my neck. Just as Obito was coming out of the bathroom, I decided I wanted to have it cut just below my shoulders. I took the kunai I was twirling and measured the correct length.

I sliced quickly, before I could change my mind. I felt a lot of my hair fall through my fingers then onto the floor. I opened my eyes, not aware that I had closed them. I looked in the mirror. Wow. That was defiantly a change. Before it seemed my hair got in the way or was always neglected and dirty. Now it was perfectly framing my face, out of the way, and it seemed almost clean. I blinked and pinched myself. This was not me… Was it? I snapped myself out of my trance.

"Let's go," I said. Obito grinned and nodded. We both grabbed our packs and left the inn behind. I didn't bother cleaning up the hair. The maid would get it. I realized that by cutting my hair, I was cutting away my old ties. It was time for a change.


	3. Chapter 3 Phase One: Run like Hell

Chapter 3

Authors Note: Sorry… This is SO late. I've been uber busy. Yes. I said uber. Anyway… The next chapter of Hide and Seek!

* * *

"Oh for God's sake Obito, hurry up! And I wonder why Kakashi didn't burn you," I muttered. Obito came from behind a tree.

"Sorry Lily-chan…" he said, scratching the back of his head. I blinked.

"Obito…"

"Yeah?"

"Where's your headband?" I asked. Obito looked at me. I knew something was wrong then. There was this feeling that Obito was acting weird. I narrowed my eyes. I jumped forward and punched Obito in the face. He looked shocked.

"Lily-chan?" he asked, his voice full of hurt.

"Don't call me that!" I hissed, punching him again. This wasn't the Obito I knew. Obito wouldn't forget his headband. And he wasn't wearing his goggles. Obito almost never took off his goggles. This was obviously an imposter. I sensed someone behind me, but relaxed when I recognized the real Obito coming out from the trees.

"Lily-chan? Who's that? And why is he henged like me?" Obito asked.

"I don't know… But I'm about to find out!" I growled, punching the imposter again. This time he went flying and hit a tree, dispelling the henge. It was an Iwa nin. Why was he all the way out here? And why was he trying to… Then it hit me. The mission. I knew something felt wrong. They must have had a scout go back to Iwa and send a tracker after us.

"Alright, what are you doing here?" I asked the Iwa nin. He looked to be only about 12. Now he looked very scared.

"W…What are you going to do to me?" he stuttered. I blinked. Did I hit him that hard? I didn't think so…

"We won't do anything if you answer all our questions," Obito said. The Iwa nin stilled looked scared stiff.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"T…Takeo," the boy replied.

"Takeo, who sent you after us?" I asked.

"Tsuchikage-sama," Takeo said.

"Why were you sent here?" Obito asked.

"I… I was told that… the… Uchiha couldn't get away…" Takeo stammered. "But… I couldn't find him at the site… So I went to the nearest town for some information. Shop owners told me that two strangers came into town, carrying two kids. Apparently one of the strangers was Deidara, an Iwa missing nin, so I decided to see where they were staying… But then they left, and I went out into the forest. And I saw you two… And I thought you would have some information…" Takeo said. I glanced at Obito. So he didn't recognize us. That was good.

"Uchiha… Wasn't there a Konoha team around here? I heard that some other Iwa nin killed one of them off. It might have been the Uchiha," I said.

"Really? Oh thank you!" Takeo said, bouncing up and running off. Obito gave me a glance that said 'He could have just run off the moment you punched him…' I grinned.

"Come on Obito… You've kept me waiting for at least ten minutes," I muttered, jumping up into the branches of the forest.

"Lily-chan! Wait up!" Obito called, following me.

* * *

"Um… Lily… We've been past that tree three times already…" Obito muttered.

"No we haven't," I stubbornly answered.

"Yes we have. See, it has twelve branches, all the other trees have way more," Obito pointed out. I glared.

"I do not get lost,"

"You're lost now,"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are,"

"No I'm not!"

"We're supposed to go left,"

"What? How do you know?!"

"Because there's a path,"

"Really?" I checked the other fork in the road. "What do you know… There is a path…" I muttered.

"You owe me a favor," Obito said.

"What!?! Why?"

"Because now we won't have to sleep on the ground tonight," Obito said. I glared at him.

"I don't have the map," I pointed out.

"Neither do I," Obito said.

"Wait… I thought you did,"

"Nope. I thought you had it,"

"Where in hell did the map go?" I muttered.

"I don't know," Obito said. I sighed. We might as well just follow this path into town, and maybe buy a new map. Which reminded me…

"Obito… Where in the world do you want to go first?" I asked. Obito paused for a moment.

"I've always wanted to see the Fire Temple, I heard the monks there are really skilled and awesome!" Obito cheered. I smiled. Only Obito would get hyped up about a temple. Though the monks could teach us fire jutsus. And I was pretty sure that both of us had an affinity for fire. I wasn't completely sure though.

"Hey, I think I see a little town up ahead!" I said, the forest trees fading into grasslands. There was a faint outline of buildings in the distance.

"Race you there!" Obito said, dashing off.

"No fair! You got a head start!" I said, running after him. I heard Obito's laugh. It was joyful and cheerful. I smiled and laughed with him. For the first time in a while, I truly felt free.

* * *

"Ooo! Hot Springs!" I said, dragging Obito over to a hot spring.

"L…Lily-chan… You know I don't like hot springs!" Obito whined. I turned to him, pleading.

"Please Obito-kun, I've always wanted to go to a hot spring," I said, trying to look cute. I could see Obito trying not to cringe.

"Fine," he caved. I grinned and entered the hot springs. Reading the signs, I chose the woman's bath. The employee handed me a few towels and told me where to put my clothes. It turned out there were only a few other people in the woman's bath. I slipped into the steaming water, sighing with relief. This was just what I needed. A nice place to relax for a while. I gazed around the bath, taking note of a few people I saw. There was a brown haired girl, getting out of the water, a red haired woman, but the last woman caught my eye. She had blond hair, not as blond as mine, light brown eyes, and a large bust. There was also a purple diamond shaped seal on her forehead. I blinked. Was it really Tsunade? No mistaking it, it was Tsunade. But where was Shizune? Probably trying to find Tsunade. I was surprised that Tsunade wasn't gambling or drinking. But then again, this town was small. Suddenly I heard a familiar voice over the tall wall that separated the men's baths from the woman's baths.

"Hey Ojii-san_(Old man)_, what are you doing peeping in the woman's baths?" I heard Obito's voice. The women in the baths froze, covering up. Unconsciously I covered up a bit too.

"Gaki_(brat)_, shut up! You probably alerted all of them!" I heard a voice say. It was probably Jiraiya. He was the only one who would dare publicly peek.

"I am not a brat!"

"Are too,"

"Are not,"

"Are too,"

"Are not," It went on like this for a while, until some scuffling was heard.

"Ow! What was that for? You could have taken my other eye out!" Obito hissed.

"Other eye? Don't you have two?"

"No! I… lost one in a fight!" Obito avoided the subject.

"Oh, a hard earned victory," the voice mocked.

"No… I lost… I would have died… But then she came," Obito said, I could barely hear it, even with chakra enhancing my hearing. A slow blush spread across my face, not very noticeable, but it was there. The conversation faded to where I couldn't hear much, so I turned my attention towards the now empty bath. Well… Almost empty. Everyone was gone except Tsunade and me. And Tsunade did not look happy. She was trying to go and punch the wall where Jiraiya was probably sitting. How were they in the same town, I had no idea.

"Hey…" I snapped out of my thoughts to see Tsunade talking. "You're a medic nin right?" I blinked. Slowly I nodded.

"You saved that boy there didn't you?"

"Hai…" I said.

"You're different," I blinked. Different?

"Gomen… I don't know what you mean…"

"Why would you save someone, if they're not your lover, or family member?" Tsunade asked. I thought long and hard for a good answer.

"Because…" I truly couldn't answer that. "I'm not sure…" I finished. Tsunade looked like she was about to say something when something flew over the wall. Or someone. I looked and knew exactly who it was.

"Oh God…" Tsunade and I muttered at the same time. We got out of the hot springs and hurried back to put our clothes back on. Once we had clothes on, we came back out to see what had happened. There, floating in the middle of the hot springs, was Obito. Thankfully, he had a towel on. He looked pretty dazed. I walked on top of the water and poked Obito's shoulder.

"You ok?" I asked. I got a slight nod. I ran a hand over his head and assessed the damage. A blow to the stomach, mostly knocked the air out of him, and a bruised knee. Minor injuries.

"How'd you manage getting punched over a wall?" I asked.

"I called Ojii-san a pervert," he said.

"What exactly did you say?" I said.

"Ero-sennin…" Obito muttered. I started to laugh.

"It's not funny!" Obito said, but he was grinning too. He got up and jumped over the wall.

"Ne, Ne! Ero-sennin! Guess who I saw?" I heard him yell.

"What is it gaki?"

"I saw Tsunade, the legendary healer! But she looked pretty pissed…" Obito said.

"WHAT???????????????????!!" I grinned. I heard some scrambling and decided to go out to the front, to see if they would be running. When I got out, Tsunade was already beating Jiraiya up. Obito was nearby, grinning. Jiraiya managed to get away from Tsunade and grabbed Obito by the collar of his jacket.

"Hey!" Obito protested, trying to get down.

"Put him down!" I said. Jiraiya glanced at me and back at Obito. Then he got a perverted look on his face and threw Obito towards me.

"What are you doing?!?!" Obito yelled, flipping and landing in front of me. "What was that for?" he turned back to Jiraiya, who looked a little stunned that his (-coughcough-Horrible-coughcough-) plan didn't work. I marched over to Jiraiya, looked him in the eye, which was kind of hard because I was so short, and punched him in the stomach. Jiraiya coughed and skidded back a few feet.

"What was that for?" he asked, sounding innocent.

"For peeping. And this is for almost hurting my friend," I said, kicking him this time. He skidded back a few more feet.

"Are you using chakra enhanced kicks?" he asked.

"Not really… A little…" I muttered.

"Amazing! I've only seen one other person who could do that!" Jiraiya said, poking me.

"Ero-sennin! Don't touch Lily-chan!" Obito yelled. Jiraiya glared at Obito, who was grinning.

"Tell me, do you have good chakra control?" Jiraiya asked.

"Um… Sort of… I guess so. Not perfect, but I'm proficient at medical ninjutsu. I also know a few Katon jutsus… I want to learn more though," I said, trying to make things a little vague. Jiraiya was rustling around in his bag for something.

"Channel your chakra into this," he said, giving me a piece of paper.

"Seriously?"

"Just do it,"

"If it explodes, I'm blaming you," I said, channeling chakra into the paper. The paper first split in half then proceeded to become waterlogged and fell apart.

"Is that supposed to happen?" I asked.

"Technically, no. But you seem to have a primary element of wind, and a secondary element of water. The wind is probably how you can even use fire jutsus," Tsunade explained.

"I want to try the paper!" Obito said. Jiraiya gave him a paper too and he channeled chakra into the paper. The paper burst into flames.

"Aww… No fair! Lily-chan gets two and I only get one!" Obito complained.

"Well 'Lily-chan' is more special than you are," Tsunade said. Obito pouted. Suddenly I felt a new chakra signature, too large and sinister to be a friendly shinobi, come within about five meters away from us. I froze, and Obito was oblivious to the signature. He was pestering Jiraiya to give him a jutsu scroll or something like that.

"You feel it too huh," Tsunade muttered, just low enough so I could hear. I nodded. Slowly I turned around. There were two figures. They both wore black cloaks with red clouds on them. They're heads were covered with straw hats. One of the figures was shorter than the other. You could see the taller figures eyes through the small gap between the rim of the hat and the high collar. They were a sickly yellow and very snake-like. Tsunade stiffened. That meant one thing, Orochimaru. And I knew who the other person was. Although, I was clinging to this one small ray of hope, was the younger, err… more inexperienced version than the one I knew. It was Akasuna no Sasori. Or what I hoped to be the younger, just thrown out of Suna, version of him. I would never be able to get away if it were the older version of him. I noticed he was out of his usual puppet body. That probably meant the younger version, but I couldn't be sure.

"We won't cause any harm if you tell us what we are looking for," The taller one, Orochimaru, said. Tsunade glared. Sasori held up three pictures.

"Our leader wants us to find this girl, plus these two," he said. I took a look at one of the photos. It was Deidara. So he wasn't in the Akatsuki… The next was one I recognized as a poorly drawn picture of Rose. I gazed at the last one and felt my blood run cold.

It was a picture of me, although I was 17 years old and I had blond hair. But the facial features were easily spotted. I could only hope I looked different. But I knew a valuable piece of information. The Akatsuki were after us. And apparently Pein didn't forget about us.

"Nope… Haven't seen them around. I heard the next town over had a sighting of that one," I said, pointing to Deidara.

"Arigato," Sasori said, the pictures disappearing. Orochimaru was currently in a glaring contest with Tsunade.

"You're welcome…" I said. I mentally slapped myself in the forehead. Not the time to have manners Lily. I noticed Sasori was staring at me.

"I feel as if I should know you… You look familiar. But I can't place your face," he said.

"Really? Must have mistaken me for someone else. I really got to go now… Bye!" I said, scurrying over to Obito.

"New priority Obito…" I muttered.

"What?"

"Get and stay as far away from any one of those people in the black and red cloaks. They're bad news," I muttered.

"So run?"

"Run."

And so we started to run. And we didn't stop till we couldn't run anymore, and even then we slept in a tree, only half awake, listening for any signs of pursuit. And thus began our life of running from the Akatsuki.

* * *

Authors Notes: I'm sorry! This is SO late. I promise the next chapter of A New Beginning will be up soon too, for those of you who read that too. I just got past a science report, history project, and tons of math homework. And having to put my cat down. = ( So I'm a physical and emotional wreck right now… But I hope to get next chapter out soon! Again I'm sorry!


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